A D a Y S p E N t W e L l
by crazyforsasuke
Summary: this is my first anc fic i hopr you'll love it. please read and REVIEW!!! this is a good fic i promise!!!


A Day Well Spent 

By an_Advocate

  
  
  


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6:34 p.m., Aya noted, checking the timepiece on her desk. Maybe... maybe, I'd better call it a day, she thought to herself. 

It had been a day well spent. Much had been accomplished, and some real solutions to the latest cases of international turmoil were now well on their way as a result of today's deliberations. Aya's heart was full. She believed in what she was doing with all her heart. 

She was tired, however. This happy day had only come after months of other ones; other days filled with hard work, sleepless nights, heartaches, and frustrations. She was finding out just how right she had been during the Celestial  incident, that peace only comes when those who want it will fight for it. What a long, hard battle it had been. 

She tidied up her desk and gently pressed the documents that she needed to take home with her into her bag. She turned to pick up her coat, quickly slung it over her left arm, and headed out the door to the escorts that would be lounging around outside, waiting to take her home. 

Aya was a good deal more pleased by what she found instead. Tooya sat where one of the escorts should have been, wearing a blue suit with the tie loose at the collar, going through some paperwork. His right leg was propped over his left and one arm hung over the chair adjacent to him. He looked up as she came out of the doorway. 

"Aya." 

"Tooya," she replied. The words came out softly, like a sigh of relief. 

"Can I take you home?" he asked. She didn't answer with words, simply smiled and offered a polite nod. 

They walked in silence for the first couple minutes. Some would have mistaken it for the silence of strangers, unsure of what to say or how to act towards one another. Those who knew them knew better, however: it was the silence of two people that so completely understood each other that no words needed to be said. They simply drank in the beauty of each other's presence. 

Tooya was the first to break the silence. "I didn't drive," he explained. "I thought we'd walk instead." 

"Are you really Tooya?" she teased. "It's raining and it's late. That's not efficient at all, you know?" 

He smiled--just a little bit--and said quietly, "I thought we'd take our time and enjoy it." He offered her his arm and they began making their way through the city streets together under the protective shelter of Tooya's umbrella. 

The rain started letting up, and the day's last bits of sunlight began breaking through the clouds. The penthouse Aya had been set up in by the government just happened to be directly in view of the sunset, and so they were able to see the golden orb as it made its descent beyond the hills. It was a glorious sight, one of those views of creation that stops the heart of even the busiest individual, forcing him to step out of the rat race of life and wonder at how the world be so much more.   

"This is peace," Tooya murmured. 

"Hmm..." Aya agreed. 

Tooya turned to look up at the sky. "Aya," he said quietly, "I wanted to tell you something." 

"What is it, Tooya ?" 

"After the celestial incident. It has now been more than eight years since we have a peaceful life .the mikage family are  not involved in the c-genomer project. The laboratory have been destroyed. The world is finally on its way to peace." 

He turned now to look at her intently. Aya felt the full force of his stare: it was steady and unflinching. Most would have felt intimidated-even outright scared-but Aya was one of the few that could read Tooya. He was searching for the words to say, choosing them carefully to convey exactly what he wanted. He gave the low grunt that she was by now so accustomed to and continued. 

"Once in a while, I look back on those times. When I do, the thing that comes to mind most strongly... is the feeling I had of fighting an endless battle.  I never dreamed of living in a world like that of today. Only two times come to mind, one when I was with Yuuhi, and the second..." He paused. "The will to live, the belief that the future can be better than the past... I didn't have that until I met you, Aya. I realized that while on Shizuoka. That was the second time." 

Aya flushed inwardly, but outwardly, continued returning Tooya's gaze. She gave him a small smile. 

"It was different at the beginning. I never thought things could be like this. You kept surprising me, though, challenging the world I knew. It was confusing." He smiled. "It took me a while to understand why I never could kill you." He moved now to grab her waist with his free arm and pull her close to himself.  She leaned her head against his shoulder and let herself take in the enormity of the moment.

"From then on, I've never stopped believing in you the way I asked you to believe in me. Wherever you might have been, whatever I had to do, it's as you said... it was good just knowing that somewhere underneath the same sky, there you were also."

"Things can't stay this way forever, though, Aya," he murmured as she snuggled closer. "It's time.  Will you take the next step forward, will you walk in this new world alongside me?" 

"Tooya…"  Aya said it softly, her cheek resting on Tooya's shoulder. 

"Marry me, Aya."  He pulled away gently as he said it so he could look into her face. 

She stared up at him, looking at him as intensely as he so often looked at her. She saw him, the real Tooya that nobody else saw. Tooya actually was a very loving person on the inside, but nobody ever saw it. He did what needed to be done for the good of everybody, but more often than not, people couldn't understand it and he never bothered to convince them otherwise. He had been like that with her for the longest time. It was different this time, though. 

"Of course," she replied.

He pulled her close again, this time tighter.  Both could feel the beat of the other's heart. They remained that way for a long time afterwards.  It was a glorious day, a day well spent. 

  



End file.
